SUBSTANCE ABUSE BY COLLEGE AGE STUDENTS—UNDERSTANDING THE BASIC SCIENCE AND HOW THAT LEADS TO EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF SBIRT

Friday October 29, 2010

A one-day part of the 2010 Carolinas Conference on Addiction and Recovery will focus on drinking by college aged students.  The morning will include four plenary sessions covering the basic science of the effects of alcohol on the adolescent brain, studies of drinking behaviors in college aged people, the results from a study of SBIRT (screening, brief intervention and referral for treatment) on college campuses, and effective treatment of college students for problem drinking.

In the afternoon, Dr. Paul Grossberg will conduct a workshop entitled “SBIRT in College Students and Young Adults: Applying Motivational Interviewing Skills and Strategies in Busy Clinical Practices.”

CREDITS: 6 HOURS OF CME, 6 HOURS OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE SPECIFIC TRAINING FOR COUNSELORS
COST:  $125 (includes lunch and materials)

FOR INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION
www.addictionrecoveryinstitute.org (click on Carolinas Conference) Or call 828-859-2277

To download informational flyer click HERE:   2010 Carolinas Conference on Addiction and Recovery Flyer [563.0 KiB]

The North Carolina Centers for Prevention Resources (CPRs) are sponsoring scholarships to the following conferences this Fall:

• APNC Fall Conference– October 20-22, 2010
• Substance Abuse Services State of the Art Conference – November 2-3, 2010

Download more information including application, conference details, as well as scholarship requirements and requests HERE:   CPR Fall Conferences Application and Info [388.0 KiB]

The Legislative Oversight Committee on MH, DD, and SA services will meet on September 8, 2010 at 10am.

What: LOC Meeting

When: Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Time: 10am

Where: Room 643, Legislative Office Building

You can download the agenda here:   LOC Meeting Agenda 9.8.10 [33.0 KiB]

From StarNews Online (8.26.10)

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20100826/ARTICLES/100829718?tc=ar

From the News and Observer (8.25.10)

Most Dix psychiatric patients to be transferred by year’s end

BY SARAH OVASKA – Staff Writer

RALEIGH — The state-run Dorothea Dix Hospital will send away most of its psychiatric patients by year’s end, a move that raises questions about what will happen to the 306-acre campus.

Lanier Cansler, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, told hospital staff Tuesday that all but one unit of the hospital will close. Most patients will be moved to the new Central Regional Hospital in Butner and Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro, resulting in new assignments for the 803 medical and support staff who work on the campus caring for patients.

“We want to make sure the patients are taken care of,” Cansler said in an interview. “We’re going to be maintaining the same number of beds; the costs will be significantly less.”

The call to shutter most of the programs that serve the 183 patients on Dix’s campus is a familiar refrain from the state, which has set closing dates for the Dix campus several times.

State officials decided in 2002 to close Dix and another hospital in Butner and replace them with Central Regional Hospital and by steering more patients to community-based programs. At the time, Dix had 390 beds for patients, about half of whom came from Wake County. The moves were supposed to save the state money, but as community-based services have failed and faltered in recent years, the state has struggled to find enough psychiatric beds to treat those on waiting lists around the state.

Dix was set to close in 2008, but a lawsuit over safety concerns with the new hospital in Butner led a judge to block the shutdown. There have also been extensive problems with patient abuse and neglect at Cherry in Goldsboro.

But this time, the state’s budget has all but sealed the fate of Dix, which became the state’s first mental health institution when it opened in 1856. The state legislature didn’t provide any money for Dix in this year’s budget, and there are available beds at the new Central Regional Hospital, which was designed to replace Dix, Cansler said.

“We have been forced to make some very difficult decisions to address this shortfall,” Cansler wrote in a memo sent to Dix staff.

Most of the staff will be offered jobs in Butner, a 45-minute drive from downtown Raleigh, or at Cherry Hospital, where 30 beds for adult patients are being added.

For more on this story click HERE.